


The Pangs of Disappointed Love

by Moebius



Series: The Heart and Understanding [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Exes, F/F, Impossible Wolf, canonical AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 13:05:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6052684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moebius/pseuds/Moebius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone from Rose's past comes back into her life, and she and Clara need to deal with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pangs of Disappointed Love

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Northanger Abby: "Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love." This is the first part of the series that I've written with a sequel already in mind, so I apologize for the slightly open ending.

Clara and Rose were on their way to the Tyler home for tea. They didn’t do tea every weekend, because Rose absolutely refused to be either that predictable or that domestic with her mother, but she could handle a special tea once a month. But she made Clara promise they would also have tea with Clara’s family, even though Clara wasn’t overly fond of her stepmother, because Rose also refused to have everything be about her own family. She didn’t want to give Jackie the attention.

And so they were pulling up onto the property, chatting about little things like work – Clara’s – and books – also Clara’s, but Rose was working her way through them – when Rose stopped midsentence.

“Oh my god.”

“What?”

“Do you see that?”

Clara squinted. She could just make out a tall, slim, brown-haired man in a suit, standing in front of the door. “The man at the door? Yes, why?" 

“It’s him.”

Immediately, Clara knew who “him” was. “Oh. Were we expecting him?”

“We were  _not_ .” Rose’s hands were tight on the wheel.

“And will we be slowing down, or ramming into him at full speed?”

“What?” Rose blinked and looked at the speedometer. She hit brakes, roughly enough to jostle them, and Clara had to reach for the dish they’d brought for tea to save it from falling to the floor. “Sorry.”

Clara reached over and squeezed Rose’s arm. “I don’t want to die because of your unresolved issues with your ex-boyfriend, Rose. And I would prefer not to be a party to murder by car.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry.” Rose sighed. “I feel like a child when I see him." 

“But you’re not a child. Now go talk to him.” She tucked the dish onto her lap. “Actually, drive us the rest of the way to the door, then go talk to him.”

Despite herself, Rose smiled. “Alright. But I reserve the right to be upset about this.”

“Of course. We’ll get ice cream on the way home, if necessary.”

“Can we do that anyway?”

Clara was already out of the car, though, on her way to introduce herself. “Hello, I’m Clara. You must be John.”

“Clara! Hello!” A wide smile split John’s face and he reached out to shake Clara’s hand. “You must be Rose’s flat mate. Have we met? You look familiar.”

Clara raised an eyebrow at the flat mate part, but didn’t correct him. “Don’t think we have,” she felt Rose come up behind her.

“John,” Rose started. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m back in London and wanted to see you, and, well. I thought you would still be living here.” He waved his arm around at the mansion. “But Jackie said-“

“You thought I’d still be with my mum and dad?”

“Well,” he put his hand on the back of his neck and looked sheepish. “Yeah.”

“I’m a grown woman.”

“I never said you weren’t.”

“But you assumed I, what, wouldn’t have anywhere else to go ever? It’s been over a year.”

Clara coughed. “Right, well I’ll just go inside and say hello to Pete and Jackie, shall I?” She raised her eyebrows. “Unless…”

Rose shook her head. “No, it’s alright. I’ll be in in a second.”

“I’m sorry, but are you sure I don’t know you? ”

“Still pretty sure no,” Clara shrugged, “never been to another universe.” With a small smile to Rose, she went inside.

“You told her?”

“Why does everyone think it’s so odd that I’m honest with my girlfriend?”

“Your – wait, she’s not your flatmate?”

“Not doing this with you right now.” She pushed past him.

“Rose!” He turned on his heel and followed her, catching up in the foyer just inside the door. He grabbed her arm. “Rose –“

“Let go, John.” She tugged her arm out of his grasp.

He held his hands up. “Sorry, I only want to talk.”

“I know, but I don’t know if that’s what I want, okay? Maybe not yet?”

“You told her everything?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Yes. I did." 

“Oh.” His shoulders slumped a little, but only for a moment, before he grinned a big grin at her. “Well! I should meet her then, this girlfriend of yours. What’s her name again?”

“Clara.” Rose looked at him suspiciously. “Her name’s Clara.”

“And you’re sure I’ve never met her before?”

“How would I know?”

“Maybe I met the other version of her? From our universe?”

She shrugged. “If you did, I wasn’t there for it.”

“And you –“

“Live with her. Yes. Because we’re dating. Because I love her." 

“Oh.”

Rose waited for a moment, but when John didn’t say anything else she turned and walked into the sitting room. Inside, Jackie looked nervous, Pete looked tense, and Clara… Rose smiled. Clara looked like Clara. Rose sat next to her on the couch, reaching for her hand. She leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Stop being perfect.”

Clara shook her head. “Impossible.”

“Impossible?” John repeated as he entered the room, stopping the doorway. After a second he shook his head. “I swear I had a better brain before.”

“Before what?”

“Oh, before Donna and I –“ He waved his hand and let himself fall into a seat. “You know. Where’s Tony?”

Jackie smiled weakly. “At a friends. He didn’t know you were coming.”

“None of us did,” Rose added.

“Yes, yes I know! I didn’t even know I was coming, not really, but I thought it was time and here I am. Bad timing. Much worse than it used to be. I used to be better at time.” He frowned. “But! Let’s all catch up. Clara!”

Clara blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“The last time we met-‘

“Was less than five minutes ago, outside.”

“Yep! And before that-“

“Nope.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. Still.”

He clicked his tongue. “Hm.”

“That’s enough,” Rose cut in. She took a breath to calm herself. “Are you trying to grow a beard?”

The question seemed to let a little air out of the tension in the room, and everyone relaxed.  That had been Rose’s intent, but she was still grateful when Jackie started chatting as if this was an absolutely normal Saturday afternoon tea, and there was nothing at all to be upset over.

On the inside, though, Rose was still pretty upset. 

John scratched at his chin. “Never had a beard before.”

Clara snorted and then covered her mouth because she couldn’t stop giggling.

“What’s so funny about that?”

“I don’t… what _isn’t_?”

For a moment, nobody else laughed. And then everyone else did, joining Clara in her almost hysterical giggling, until the laughter faded and they were left with silence.

\--

Later, after a quite awkward meal and even more awkward promises to be in touch even though John had nowhere to stay but with Rose’s parents, Clara and Rose were in bed, reading. It had been a habit of theirs since Rose started working her way through Clara’s collection.

Rose was hoping to just put the day behind them. Clara, however, had other ideas. “Do you want to be friends with him?”

“Him who?”

“Oh come on. You know who.”

Rose sighed and put her book down. Tonight she was reading _Persuasion_. “I don’t think I know how not to be friends with him.”

“I’m not jealous.”

“I didn’t think you were. Do you get jealous?" 

“Not really. Would you want me to be jealous?”

“No. Maybe a little.” She exhaled deeply. “Who doesn’t want to be that important?”

Clara frowned. “Do you not know how important you are to me?”

Rose turned and looked at Clara, whose eyes somehow seemed even larger and brighter than usual. “I know, Clara.”

“Yeah.” But her voice was small, and Rose wasn’t convinced.

“This is weird. You’re being weird.”

“Because I’m not jealous?”

“No! Because it’s not like you to,” Rose waved her hand while she searched for the word, “be so insecure." 

“I’m not insecure! I know how important I am to you, you tell me all the time! But apparently I don’t tell you, because I have to act like a teenager to get you to realize how much I love you.”

“I… what?” Rose was honestly, truly, completely confused.  “I know how much you love me!”

“Could have fooled me.”

“So we’re really arguing right now because I don’t know you love me the way you know I love you?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” 

“ _Yes_!” 

Rose had completely misread the situation, because Clara was much more upset than Rose had seen her in a long time.  Possibly ever. By the time she had her thoughts gathered enough to try to ask her next question in a way that wouldn’t make things worse, Clara and hopped out of the bed and grabbed her pillow.  “You’re sleeping on the couch?”

“No,” Clara tossed the pillow at Rose. “You are." 

“What?!”

“It’s my bed!”

“It’s _our_ bed!”

Clara crossed her arms over her chest and stood silently, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

Rose didn’t know what else to do, so she took her pillow, which was really Clara’s pillow, and went into the other room.  She looked back over her shoulder once, and opened her mouth to say something, but Clara had already gotten back into bed and turned her back to the door.

She had left her book and her phone in the bedroom. Not that she was in the mood to do anything besides brood. So Rose stared at the ceiling until, eventually, she fell asleep.

\--

The next morning she woke to the sensation of a body on top of hers. She opened her eyes to find that Clara was curled against her half on top of her, asleep. Rose had no idea when that had happened, but she smiled faintly. It reminded her of their first night together. “I hope this means you’re not mad at me anymore,” she whispered.

“Mm, I’m sorry.” Clara opened her eyes, which were slightly pinkish. “I was being daft. I don’t like your stupid ex-boyfriend time traveler with his stupid fuzzy neck beard and fancy suit, and I took it out on you.”

Rose kept totally silent for a minute, before breaking into a wide grin. “So,” she asked. “You’re jealous?”

“Maybe a little, but I thought I’d be better than that.”

“But you’re not, and you hate John for no other reason than because I was in love with him?”

Clara rolled her eyes. “When you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being jealous. I personally hate maths even more than I used to because of Danny Pink.” 

“Danny’s very nice.”

Rose nodded. “Yeah. So’s John, really.”

Clara buried her face in Rose’s shoulder and muttered something unintelligible. Rose stroked her hair lightly, waiting for her to be ready. Not waiting last night, she decided, had been part of the problem.  After a moment, she lifted her head up. She was slightly flushed, and her bangs were askew. Rose’s breath caught in her throat. “What?” Clara asked, a hint of shyness in her voice.

“You’re beautiful. I love you, even if you’re jealous of my fuzzy bearded ex-boyfriend, and I know you love me.” She lifted her eyebrows to stop whatever Clara was about to say. “Not because you’re jealous, but because I know. Because you’re here?  Because of that really old copy of _Emma_ you let me read, even though I saw you wince every time I turned a page. Because of teas with our parents.”

“Step-parent.”

“Alternate universe dad.”

“Right, fair." 

Rose smiled. “So can it be our bed again?”

“Maybe we should set up Danny and John.” 

“Oh my god,” Rose shook her head, eyes wide. “Please don’t ever mention them right after I mention our bed.” 

“Ah, right. Context is everything.”

“Yes, Miss. Thank you for the English lesson.” Rose bit her lip, thoughtfully. “Are we okay?”

“Yeah.” Clara stretched and kissed Rose softly. “We’re okay. But we should talk to John.” 

“Both of us?”

“Both of us.”

Rose sighed. “Fine. Can we have breakfast first?”

Clara’s eyes sparkled. “Breakfast wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“Well,” Rose grinned, “in that case…”

Breakfast did happen, eventually.  But it was much, much later. 


End file.
